Every largish city has somewhere that arcade machines get repaired. Where I live there (~350,000 population) there used to be a few but now there is just one dude that runs a repair/distribution company for arcade machines. He does a lot of private trade these days.

If you go along to any repair shop, if it's anything like my local one, there will be a room with a thousands of mainboards for a variety of arcade machines.

As time has passed a lot of games have gone in and out of favour. By removing their mainboards and replacing with a newer mainboard from a more popular game one could save money by keeping the original cabinet. A lot of mainboards were stored in back rooms, cupboards, or just piled up in the corner.

If you feel so guilty that you couldn't build a MAME cabinet without legally owning the roms I would tell you to go and buy the mainboard. You will find they run at no more than $5 each - at least for the games made in the 1980's and early 1990. As you move into the late 1990's you will start coming across games that also require a hard drive for storing game assets (tilesets, audio and video samples etc). It might be a little harder to get all the physical assets to justify to your needs (I think Killer Instinct used a hard drive).

Cheers,
Jaso

I think the logic needs to be flipped. Make the coal-burners not allowed to use externalities any more. That is - shut them down if they emit *any* pollution. Of course they will cry that it's too expensive for them to implement filters and underground carbon sequestration etc. We could then subsidise them so that it is possible. Compare apples with apples.

I just retired my IPCop box after 7+ years of faithful service. I had a modem in bridged mode forwarding packets to my IPCop box (P4, 64MB RAM) which was connected to an 8-port switch and wireless access point. Replaced all of that with a single Billion 7800N modem router (gigabit switch, wireless and plenty of yummy options). While the stability, options and graphing that IPCop provided were nice, it was really nice to remove all the equipment and replace it with one small white box.

Exactly. I have spent the last few hours helping my parents get their newly installed XP Home system patched with all the latest security updates. They had a motherboard failure the other day - they have a legit windows XP licence and just wanted their system to work again without the rigmarole of learning a new system, or forking out for new components.

this is fantastic. I have listened to this all day today. Wicked lisping as well. I love it.

The company I currently work for implements a software solution akin to the one mentioned in the article (for security purposes). Another company that I am aware of simply used crazy glue in all the usb ports and headers.

You sir are a fine representation of what is wrong with the USA legal system. You have been provided with video evidence of your misdemeanor. Take it like a man. Pay the fine. Free up the courts so they have more time to spend on more important things.

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Both you and the parent are using standard song purchase price as the basis for her damages. The problem is that she is not being sued for downloading the 24 songs. She is being sued for distributing 24 songs.

How much does it cost the RIAA to purchase the sole distribution rights to any particular song? I don't know what it is - but if I had to guess I would say it's more the $0.99 per song. 1.92 million dollars split 24 ways is $80,000. If it costs the RIAA only $8,000 to purchase the sole distribution rights for any particular song, on average, then poor Ms Thomas is paying 10 times the "damage".

While I think 1.92 million is indeed a ridiculous sum to pay for downloading 24 songs the fact is that she is not being charged with downloading - it's the uploading that is the problem.

really - you mean "I couldn't care less".